Survey: Many in ND oil patch not happy about boom

The new survey of Oil Patch residents bears out the old saying that money can’t buy happiness. Sixty percent of longtime northwest North Dakota residents say they have benefited economically from the oil boom, but the majority say their quality of life has not improved, according to the report by the University of North Dakota.

The new survey of Oil Patch residents bears out the old saying that money can’t buy happiness. Sixty percent of longtime northwest North Dakota residents say they have benefited economically from the oil boom, but the majority say their quality of life has not improved, according to the report by the University of North Dakota.

An oil boom has brought great prosperity – but also great amounts of waste – to North Dakota, investigative reporting by ProPublica reveals. Data obtained by ProPublica show oil companies are spilling and dumping drilling waste onto North Dakota's land and into its waterways with increasing regularity. Many dumpings along roads and in pits go unreported, state regulators acknowledge.

North Dakota's oil boom is fueling demand for more air travel. Delta Air Lines is adding two nonstop daily flights between the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Williston, N.D., starting in November, the Fargo Forum reports.

The number of oil drilling rigs at work in North Dakota is leveling off, and a state regulator says that's a good thing because the pause "will allow infrastructure and various other things to catch up."

The goal is to help ease the housing shortage in the oil rich part of western North Dakota. Plans call for 10 buildings that will accommodate 240 campers, according to the Fargo Forum. The first phase of the project will open in July. Officials in Williston are considering a new law to ban RVs within the city.